Carson City Greenhouse Project among specialty crop grant recipients

The Carson City Greenhouse Project at Carson High School is one of 14 projects in Nevada to receive specialty crop block grant money designed for organizations that promote and enhance speciality crops through education, research, marketing and production, the Nevada Department of Agriculture announced Tuesday.

The $21,577 in grant money earmarked for the Greenhouse Project will help fund the Growing America’s Future Farmer program, said JoAnne Skelly, extension educator with the University of Nevada and grant writer for the Greenhouse Project.

“What the program does is not only train high school, elementary, middle school and our special needs students, but also working with Americorp interns to provide job skills and teach youth where our food comes from and how we grow it,” said Skelly.

Specifically, the grant allows for a partnership to increase student awareness of Good Agricultural Practices and Good Handling Practices and sustainable field production techniques for specialty crops by developing a student-run community supported agriculture program in which students, Nevada’s future specialty crop farmers, learn about growing vegetables, food safety procedures, marketing products and farm production business skills.

Greenhouse Manager Camille Jones said the grant “helps us continue the rewarding expansive work that we do here at the Greenhouse Project. We are really grateful for having gotten the funding."

More than $300,000 in awards will be given to projects across the state, said Jim Barbee, NDA director.

"The specialty crop block grant program is incredibly helpful for promoting Nevada crops," he said. "We are grateful for the funding from the USDA to enhance the competitiveness of Nevada's specialty crop industry.”

Specialty crops are defined as fruits, vegetables, tree nuts, dried fruits, horticulture and nursery crops including floriculture.

Also receiving notice it will receive grant money is the Main Street Gardnerville Program Corporation. This program is designed to increase nutrition knowledge and consumption of specialty crops by facilitating a nutrition workshop and community garden where parents of participating families will learn the value of freshly harvested fruits and vegetables.

Here in Carson City, the Greenhouse Project, located on the Carson High School campus serves as a teaching facility for hands-on training programs that emphasize environmental stewardship, the importance of outdoor activity, civic engagement and academic achievement.

Through these programs, students will cultivate and distribute vegetables for school culinary classes and local food banks and will produce flower baskets for the downtown Carson City corridor.

In addition to providing youth educational and vocational opportunities, the Greenhouse Project also serves the needs of Carson's low-income community by increasing access to fresher, more nutritious food supplies. The project promotes revitalization of Carson City's downtown commercial corridor by enhancing its appearance through horticultural arts. The project grows and distributes around 4,500 pounds of produce annually.

Other funded projects for 2014 include:
— Social media advertising and app development partnership between the Nevada Department of Agriculture and the Great Basin Food Cooperative (Reno)
— Food safety, farm planning and marketing activities for specialty crop producers in partnership with University of Nevada Cooperative Extension
— Study to increase pumpkin production in Nevada with the Lazy P Adventure Farm (Winnemucca)
— High Desert Farming Initiative’s (Reno) program to increase cost savings for specialty crop producers in Nevada by offering farmers an organic propagation service at a limited cost to farmers.

Nevada looks for projects that promote and enhance the competitiveness of specialty crops by increasing knowledge and consumption of specialty crops, improving distribution systems, enhancing produce safety, eradicating pest and plant health issues, specialty crop research and developing new and improved crop varieties, said Barbee.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced last week nearly $118 million in grants nationwide to strengthen markets for specialty crops. The grants were authorized through the 2014 Farm Bill as part of an effort to enhance the competitiveness of specialty crops and provide resources to strengthen American agriculture.